Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention generally relates to manipulation devices and, more particularly, to (a) massage units and massage machines of the chair or bed types which comprise therapeutic fingers for massaging the affected part of the user to be treated, (b) water massaging machines such as hot tubs with massaging attachments; (c) automatic stretching machines; and (d) automatic bathing machines.
Each of us seeks comfort, well-being, and insight through stimulating or soothing our senses. When we visit a gallery, listen to a symphony, recognize a fragrance, or enjoy a gourmet meal, we stimulate our senses. The sensory experience best suited to soothe discomfort is perhaps tactility: the most powerful sense in its ability to relax and heal. Touch relieves stress, improves mood, and releases constriction in movement. It also provokes emotional release and strengthens interpersonal connections.
Massage Chairs
Massage is perhaps the most well-recognized body therapy to address the aches, pains, and exhaustion of day-to-day life. State-of-the art massage chairs attempt to mimic the pressure applied by the hands of a skilled massage therapist. The location, frequency, and intensity of pressure is varied in part by automated massage strokes, namely, kneading, vibratory, and tapping strokes.
The most sophisticated massage chairs on the market today allow for dynamic control of only the location and frequency of pressure applied. The user can, for instance, determine the placement of a stroke by selecting a key on the control panel or the controller can choose a kneading stroke that automatically shifts pressure from place to place. Controllers can also change the tempo of such a stroke.
While tapping strokes percussively apply time-varying force, there are currently no massage chairs in which the controller can vary manipulation pressure in an automated fashion. The only way a user can alter the manipulation intensity in a massage chair today is to manually apply or remove padding to the machine. There have been proposals to automate pressure control but none has yet been produced because each design would compromise ease-of-use, disturb the industrial design and/or increase manufacturing costs.
Physical Therapy Devices
Physical therapy devices help to heal injuries by moving joints through ranges of movement and thereby lengthening and stretching muscles. In contrast, massage chairs manipulate muscles with a greater variety of modalities but do not manipulate joints. The benefits of integrating automated muscle manipulation with range-of-motion exercises have not been pursued, in part because the body supports required for range-of-motion therapy interfere with muscle manipulation. The large, broadly supportive pads used to position users"" limbs in physical therapy devices make it impossible to provide the localized muscle manipulation provided by a massage chair. However, were one to construct a massage chair with rollers that attempted to reposture users through ranges of motion, the rollers would apply excessive and painful levels of pressure through part of the movement. To make these therapies compatible, one must devise a method of controlling the force exerted by the rollers as they reposture the user.
Hydrotherapy
Hot water soaking has been shown to relieve the symptoms of arthritis, among other ailments. Hydrotherapy products claim to provide heat, buoyancy, and massage as therapy. Immersion in hot water raises the body temperature and causes blood vessels to dilate increasing the body""s circulation. The buoyancy of the water reduces body weight by 85 to 90 percent and relieves pressure on joints and muscles. The jet stream of the hot tub, however, does not provide the benefits of conventional massage. The pressure of a hot tub jet varies to such an extent, temporally and spatially, that the sensation is closer to abrasion than massage, over stimulating the surface of the skin while ignoring deeper musculature. Massage chairs offer much better massage than hot tub jets.
Massage Theory and Practice
It has been known for a long time that massage techniques have beneficial effects on the human body for improving blood circulation, for eliminating fat or cellulite, for relieving pain or stiffness, for reabsorbing edemas, and for improving muscular performance. These techniques were originally manual, but machines have been developed to satisfy the increasing demand for this practice and for ensuring that treatment can be made available regularly, inexpensively, and over a long period of time as a replacement for the hand of the masseur, whose training is lengthy and specialized, who is usually available only by prior arrangement and/or in a suboptimal location, and who can be available for only one person at a time.
Various massage machines or devices are known for pressing or stimulating the shoulders, waist or other parts of the human body to remove stiffness. Such devices can be divided into the chair type, bed type and handy (handheld) type. With respect to the mode of action on the affected part, these devices resort to mechanical pressure (steady, sliding, rolling, or vibratory) or water jets. Massage can be applied while the user is dry or immersed in water
Limited Dorsal-Ventral Motion in Dry-Type Manipulators
Dry mechanical pressure massage and bathing devices typically operate by applying force using a roller or post-type manipulator which rolls or slides tangent to the skin (lateral-medial and rostral-caudal axes) and periodically pushes into the skin (dorsal-ventral axis). This dorsal-ventral movement has limited dynamic range because it is typically generated by a rotational actuator using an off-center cam as in the Family Corp. FMC-300 massage chair.
Force Dynamism
Very few automatic manipulation devices provide the capability for a controller to dynamically vary the intensity of manipulation during the session. For example, the Family Corp. FMC-300 massage chair is not capable of delivering a light massage which slowly increases in intensity. The prior art which has this capability, typically implements it in one of a number of means which this invention improves upon. These typical means include: (a) A piston or scissor-jack pushing a manipulator into the user wherein the piston or jack extension may be adjusted to deliver more or less manipulation pressure; (b) A water jet striking user through a membrane wherein the pump supplying water may be adjusted to provide more or less flow; and (c) A clamping frame pushing user onto a manipulator wherein the clamping force may be adjusted to press the user with more or less force.
Determinants of Force Applied
In dry chair and bed-type massager/cleaners where the manipulators are under the user, the force applied by a manipulator is the weight of the user minus the weight supported by the non-therapeutic area of the chair or bed divided by the number and area of the manipulators. A chair massager supports most of the user""s weight with the immobile and non-therapeutic parts of the chair. Only a fraction of the user""s weight is supported by the manipulators which protrude through a channel in the back region. One may increase this force by moving this manipulator higher or by disengaging other manipulators.
In dry chair and bed-type massager/cleaners where the manipulators are above the user, the mechanism itself determines the pressing force. This configuration has a greater potential to entrap or injure the user and is rarely used.
Handy type massagers typically apply pressure by the user manually pressing the device into the user. This configuration is fairly safe but requires constant user attention. This lack of automatic control of force applied constitutes a key drawback of conventional manipulator machines.
Bathing Machines
Also known in the art are bathing machines which wash and rub the user with brushes, cloths or sponges as they massage the user. For example, Japanese patent publication number 2001-128880, xe2x80x9cScurf Rubbing and Washing Toolxe2x80x9d filed by Misao in 2000 describes a machine which scrubs a standing or lying down human body while applying xe2x80x9cfinger pressure massagexe2x80x9d with brushes, sponges, and towels. Japanese patent publication number 2000-167015, xe2x80x9cWasher-Massager for Bathroomxe2x80x9d filed by Hiroyuki in 1998 describes a chair which xe2x80x9cscrubs and massages a user""s back with a towel wound around rollers.xe2x80x9d The drawback of this invention is that it cannot moderate the intensity of the towel rollers except by adjusting the angle of chair""s recline.
Wet massagers typically use water jets to apply therapy. As the human body is largely buoyant, humans weigh on average only 10% of their out-of-water body weight. Hence, a manipulator can apply only a small amount of pressure. Additionally, the user will float horizontally away from the manipulator unless restrained. For this among other reasons, xe2x80x9cwetxe2x80x9d manipulators (including water jets) apply negligible amounts of force to the user. Hot tubs provide neither therapeutic massage nor assisted movement.
Tilting/Reclining to Control Massage Force
Japanese patent publication number 10-057440, for a xe2x80x9cMassage Machinexe2x80x9d, filed by Kikai in 1996, describes a bed, upon which the user is strapped, which tilts from vertical to horizontal. The bed has a manipulating device (2) and the degree of tilt determines the force this manipulating device applies to the user. This method accomplishes the ability to automatically control the normal force (the force applied by the manipulator) but requires a clamping device (the chest strap) and creates a tangent force inversely proportional to the normal force. When a light manipulation is desired, the user will be mostly vertical and a large amount of weight will be uncomfortably supported by the chest strap.
Conventional dry massage chairs provide for reclining to take advantage of tilting the user back upon manipulators to increase the force thereby applied. For example, Family Corp. FMC-300 Massage Chair allows the back portion to tilt back. In this position, the massaging action is more forceful as more of the user""s weight is supported by the manipulators and less of the user""s weight is supported by the seat part of the chair. Reclining therefore offers a reasonable method to vary the force applied without requiring a clamping force. This method is limited because users may wish to choose their posture (sitting vs. laying back) independently from the massaging force. Additionally, there is no provision for dynamically varying the tilt angle as the massage device operates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,933 for a xe2x80x9cSupport Enhancing Device and Associated Methodxe2x80x9d, awarded in 1996 to Gross, describes a chair, bed, shoe, etc. which can be made to conform to an arbitrary user by correctly pressurizing each of a number of inflatable pockets in the appliance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,082 for a xe2x80x9cChair-type Air Massage Devicexe2x80x9d, awarded in 1998 to Yamanaka, describes a chair-type air massage device which has inflatable and deflatable air bags for massaging a user""s body part by air pressure causing an expansion and contraction of the air bags. The manipulation intensity is controlled with the same parameter which controls the position control (whose range of movement is inherently limited by the design). For this reason, the intensity has a small dynamic range and has to be chosen to be of low to medium intensity so as not to adversely affect users who cannot accept deeper manipulation.
Japanese patent publication number 2000-279470 for a xe2x80x9cMassage Machinexe2x80x9d describes a posture correcting device which uses an air piston to pull the user""s shoulders backwards towards a chair. This is an example of a xe2x80x9cclamping framexe2x80x9d which can induce a sense of vulnerability and/or claustrophobia.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,475 for a xe2x80x9cChiropractic Massage Tablexe2x80x9d, awarded in 1992 to Steffensmeier, describes a chiropractic massage table for applying a uniform pressure along the entire length of the spine. The rollers are also mounted so as to float upwardly and downwardly against resistance thereby adjusting the pressure of the rollers to conform to the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral curvatures of the patient""s spine. The lifting action is generated by a scissor jack (54) and is controlled by the user with electronic controls.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,080 for a xe2x80x9cMassaging Apparatus Having Self-adjusting Constant Strength and Non-adjust Strength Modesxe2x80x9d, awarded in 1998 to Ookawa, describes a massage chair with an automatically controllable cam to control the distance the manipulator projects forwardly (Z-axis) towards the user from the massage carriage while the carriage translates in X and Y axes. In addition, the manipulators are fitted with force sensors whereby the Z-axis position of the manipulators may be dynamically adjusted to maintain a constant application of force on the user. However, adjusting the massage intensity by controlling the amount to which the manipulator protrudes through a stationary chair deforms the user in undesirable ways. In addition, if there are several manipulators, each manipulator must be fitted with this elaborate Z-axis motion actuator and force feedback system.
Pressurized Air to Control Massage Pressure
Japanese patent publication number 2000-342652 for a xe2x80x9cMassager Devicexe2x80x9d, filed by Matsushita Electric in 1999, describes a massage chair which uses a bellows-type air piston to push a ball into the user""s back. By this means, no driving force exceeding the air pressure is applied to the user. This mechanism has means to control force intensity but not to control position. That is, the pistons will extend until the pressure in the air supply and the reactive force from the user equalize. These pistons also do not have the capability of translating over the user""s body.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,218 for a xe2x80x9cVertically Reciprocating Pairs of Massage Ringsxe2x80x9d, awarded in 1998 to Fujji, improves upon JP2000-342652 by adding translation capabilities. However, as the air bladder is mounted behind the manipulator, this device also generates undesirable user deformation and requires separate Z-axis motion actuators and force feedback systems for each manipulator if they are to apply force to different areas of the user with individual intensity control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,256 for a xe2x80x9cBody Massage Apparatusxe2x80x9d, awarded in 1990 to Marlin, describes a dry hydromassage table where the user is supported by a tensioned waterproof membrane sealed to the upper part of a box containing upward-facing hydrojets. The box is provided with a fan in order to xe2x80x9cslightly pressurize the air within the chamber during use of the massage apparatus to slightly inflate the sheet to enhance the feeling of support to a user laying on the sheet and at the same time to maximize conformity of the sheet to the body of the user.xe2x80x9d This invention provides for a changeable pressurized support but this does not affect the massage intensity since the impact of the water transmitted through the membrane is unaffected by the air pressure in the chamber. The only effect is to reduce the curvature of the supportive membrane which the author claims would xe2x80x9cenhance the feeling of supportxe2x80x9d. This invention also does not anticipate the water buoyancy ideas this disclosure claims. In fact, the author explicitly states that the xe2x80x9cmassage liquid provides essentially no weight bearing support of the user.xe2x80x9d
Water Buoyancy
Japanese patent publication number 2001-182347 for a xe2x80x9cWarm Bath Facilityxe2x80x9d, filed by Tec in 1999, describes a pool with a floor on which the user stands capable of moving up and down. This xe2x80x9cmovable floor . . . fluctuates in the domain whose depth of water is 0.3-1.1 mxe2x80x9d. The therapeutic benefit of this movement is not clear. While this invention automatically controls the user""s buoyancy, it does not provide any manipulation.
Japanese patent publication number 08-191872 for a xe2x80x9cJet Bathxe2x80x9d, filed by Daiichi in 1995, describes a jet bath wherein a person taking a bath is floated in the liquid ejected from a set of nozzles angled upwards from the bottom of the tub in such a way that they do not touch the floor or side walls of the tub.
Japanese patent publication number 2001-198168 for a xe2x80x9cMassage Device and Knockdown Bathtubxe2x80x9d, filed by Osaka Gas Co. in 2000, describes a bathtub with chair type massager xe2x80x9cwhich can perform bathing and massage simultaneously.xe2x80x9d According to a Japanese-to-English machine translation, it notes that xe2x80x9c. . . in order that buoyancy may act on a bathing person""s field, it is easy to double with a motion of a massage member and to adjust a bathing person""s posture. . . . According to this characteristic feature configuration, the pressure of a massage member can be eased by operation of buoyancy, the soft feeling of a massage can be obtained, and weight can perform the massage.xe2x80x9d[Means ¶0012] This Japanese publication appears to describe an advantage of massage in water due to buoyancy because this massage device can massage the user without generating pain on the user""s massage area/body.
Diving Neutral Buoyancy Balancer
U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,216 for a xe2x80x9cNeutral Buoyancy Balancerxe2x80x9d awarded in 1998 to Kawashima describes a cylinder worn by a diver which stabilizes diving depth. Increased water pressure associated with an increased diving depth causes water to enter into the cylinder and displace air, increasing density. Decreased water pressure associated with decreased diving depth causes air in the cylinder to inflate, forcing some water to exit the cylinder, decreasing density. While this device makes use of changes in water pressure correlating to the user""s respiration cycle, it is not designed as a respiration sensor and has no means to drive other devices which synchronize off the user""s breadth. Additionally, it requires the user to immersed at significant depth and to wear a respirator mask. Additionally, this device would react to stabilize the user""s depth when perturbed by other forces such as water currents, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,512 for a xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Water Therapyxe2x80x9d, awarded in 2000 to Ricchio, describes a person buoyantly supported in a reclining or prone position on a top membrane of a enclosure which contains heated water, and air. A water pump recirculates the water which is drawn out of the enclosure through outlets and associated piping and which is then reintroduced into the interior of the enclosure through venturi air intake as water jets which are mixed with air. The air enriched water jets drive through a layer of water and impinge on the underside of the top membrane to produce massage effects on the person.
The Interactive Health HTT-9C and HTT-10CRP motorized massage chairs move rollers along a curved track so that the massage action can be made to conform to the user""s back. The technology Interactive Health uses in their more expensive chairs such as their RMS-11 are rollers mounted in a seesaw configuration, presumably on a straight track. Spring-loading the seesaw mechanism allows the rollers to follow the contours of the body while adapting to users of different heights but tend to apply disproportionate pressure to xe2x80x9coutcroppingsxe2x80x9d such as the user""s butt where the change in xe2x80x9celevationxe2x80x9d overwhelms the seesaw range-of-motion.
Conventional massage chairs allow the user to adjust the angle of seat back recline both to change posture and to control the weight the user applies to the seat back and hence the massage pressure. However, if the user wants a light massage while fully-reclined, the chair is unable to accomplish this. Solutions mentioned in the prior art suffer from significant drawbacks. One solution is removable upholstered pads, but these pads cannot change through the massage. The pads require manual user intervention and may confuse the user. The pads also clutter the look of the chair. Another solution has been massage manipulators with adjustable force such as described in JP2000-342652, xe2x80x9cMassager Devicexe2x80x9d filed by Matsushita Electric in 1999 which control neither the position of the user nor the supportive force the user receives but instead control the force with which the manipulator actively presses into the user. This requires a complex suspension system with separate piston or bellows for each manipulator. This also requires that all supportive force which is not applied by the manipulator is supplied by the passively supportive chair. This requires the active massage aperture to be small in order to support smaller users around the periphery.
Respiratory-Synchronized Manipulation
Japanese Patent publication number 08-117300 for a xe2x80x9cMassaging Machine, awarded in 1996 to Hitoshi et al., describes a massaging machine similar to a massage chair which applies massage synchronously with the user""s respiration breathing period. The breadth sensor appears to be a force sensor attached to the massage roller. The invention appears to be a one-sided (non-clamping) Bert-style stethograph and suffers from typical deficiencies of such sensors vulnerability to changes in pressure due to shifting user weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,590 for a xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Respiration Modulated Pacingxe2x80x9d, awarded in 2000 to Renirie et al., discloses a cardiac pacing system that modulates heart rate based on the phases of the patient""s respiration. The system includes a respiration sensor, which determines whether the patient is inhaling or exhaling, sensors for right ventricular blood pressure and volume, and a means for producing signals that are delivered to the patient""s heart as in conventional cardiac pacing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,500 discloses a device which measures an audio source and varies a vibration massaging unit""s intensity to the amplitude of the audio source. This invention does not mention breath sounds as a possible input and would have no obvious means to differentiate between inhalation and exhalation. Nor is it necessarily relevant to modulate the massage intensity to the loudness of breathxe2x80x94the phase is more therapeutically relevant.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,070 discloses a device which measures the degree of relaxation of a user and delivers various refreshing stimulus in response to the measurement. In this invention the sensor called out is an electrocardiogram and the time scale of the measurements would be 3 seconds. It calls for an overall measurement of relaxation and not a breath cycle specific sensing. This does not account for the inhalation and exhalation of the user and the corresponding desired modifications to the massaging stroke and intensity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,301 for a xe2x80x9cKinesthetic system for Promoting Rhythmic Breathing by Tactile Stimulationxe2x80x9d describes an invention that strokes a patient on a ventilator in rhythm with the ventilator in order to facilitate harmonious assisted breathing. When the device is disconnected from the ventilator it is only used as a breath coach to achieve a desired breathing pattern. When the device is attached to the ventilator and the stroking is in time to the user""s breathing, that breathing is a function of the ventilator and not of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,048 for an xe2x80x9cElectronic Exercise Monitorxe2x80x9d describes an exercise sensor that provides motivation for completing an exercise routine by producing verbal encouragement. One of the exercise sensors described is a breathing sensor. While the various devices described above may adequately perform their intended purposes to some degree, they have many disadvantages as noted. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved device and method for manipulating a user.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a device for manipulating a user, includes a manipulator, a translator for moving the manipulator along at least one axis to apply a manipulation to the user, and means for changing an intensity of the manipulator while providing spatially uniform support to the user outside a contact patch of the manipulator.
From the foregoing disclosure and the following more detailed description of various preferred embodiments it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention provides a significant advance in the technology and art of massage or manipulation devices. Particularly significant in this regard is the potential the invention affords for providing a high quality, reliable, low cost device which provides a pleasurable experience for the user. Additional features and advantages of various preferred embodiments will be better understood in view of the detailed description provided below.